LUCY MCGROARTY

While most people were shocked at Lucy McGroarty’s decision to drop out of the University of Windsor’s biochemistry program, she wouldn’t have had it any other way.
After applying to Ryerson’s interior design program on a whim, and getting accepted, the once science-driven student unleashed her inner artist.
“It was very difficult in the first year because the program is so art-based and I had so little previous knowledge and experience of art,” she says. “So for me my artistic side has really come out in the past two or three years.”
Despite popular belief, McGroarty wholeheartedly believes that interior design is based off of artistic principles. With a combination of planning and designing, she understands first hand the process needed for a final product.
“Because it’s obviously design-based there are definitely very artistic elements. For most projects, we’re required to produce a series of presentation drawings that, in real life, a firm would produce for a client of what the potential space would look like,” she says.
“These drawings can be very artistic as you have certain liberties in creating the space to follow whatever concept you’ve come up with.”
It’s that same design development process that McGroarty hopes to pursue in her future endeavours. One day, she hopes to find a firm that upholds the same process and beliefs that she does.
Today, the fourth-year student is now the chair of this year’s interior design show, managing to balance both her extra-curriculars and her thesis. As the chair of the show, McGroarty is busy making sure the show is presented as more of an art gallery than it is a student exhibition.
And while time is critical for this student’s final year, McGroarty is also currently working with two other students in an upcoming competition to design a food court for a non-profit food centre in Toronto.
With a few interviews lined up upon graduation, she hopes to pursue a field she has fallen in love with. But first, she plans to visit Copenhagen to finally get a glimpse of the sites she’s been learning about through the years in art history.